


But I Linger On, Dear

by Chaerring



Category: Marvel (Movies), The Avengers (2012), Thor (2011)
Genre: But it will have a happy ending, Coulson's pov, Darcy's pov, Djinni, Down the Rabbit Hole - Freeform, Episode: s02e20 What Is and What Should Never Be, F/M, Gen, M/M, Multi, Natasha is a badass, Not a happy fic guys, Steve and Darcy are bffs, Steve's Pov, Supernatural inspired, forced drug use?, imaginary spousal abuse, the villain is evil for real
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-05-25
Updated: 2012-05-30
Packaged: 2017-11-05 23:35:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/412269
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chaerring/pseuds/Chaerring
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Darcy has two beautiful children and a loving husband who thinks Hulk is an 'interesting character' that she dreamed up.</p><p>Steve shouldn't be looking in his pocket for a cell phone while he's waiting for Peggy to arrive for their standing Friday date, but he is.</p><p>The Avengers are searching for their missing loved ones, but they don't have much to go on.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Something Missing

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: None of the characters belong to me. Event the villain is borrowed.
> 
> The work title is from "Dream a Little Dream of Me" by Mama Cass.
> 
> This fic is loosely based on the Supernatural Episode "What is and What Should Never Be".
> 
> Same thing goes for this fic as chapter 2 of More than a Little Patience. I won't be around this weekend so I wanted to get as much of it up as I could, even if it's unbeta'd for now.

Darcy was packing her kids' lunches for school like she did everyday. A sandwich, an apple, bags of pretzel sitcks, and small tubs of peanut butter, plus they each got one of the cookie's Bruce had made the night before. She handed the lunch bags off to her two little hooligans and watched them go out the door and down the sidewalk to the bus stop where their little brown mops of curls bounced along with the other kids to board the school bus. She grinned as she felt her husband's arms slip around her waist and his body bent around hers until he was whispering in her ear. This was exactly what she wanted from life. She had a wonderful adoring husband, two absolutely adorable and lovable kids, and a job she didn't hate getting up for in the mornings. Her life was absolutely perfect.  
"So, I was thinking...."

He trailed off and Darcy elbowed him with a raised eyebrow. It was either a train wreck or a beautiful blessing when Bruce began _thinking_.

"Share your thoughts with the class, Professor."

He just laughed and pressed a kiss to her hair.

"What if I cancelled my lab today, you told Coulson you were taking one of those personal days you keep saving up and we stayed home to work on making another one of those beautiful things we just watched walk out the door?"

Darcy's breath caught in her throat as he pressed a suggestive kiss to the curve of her neck and his hands slid along her sides. Another baby, she could already see it. Would it be another boy? Or another girl? Caleb would be so put out if he and his dad became outnumbered by girls, but she'd love a little girl with green eyes like Hulk--

Suddenly, Darcy's world slid sideways. She wasn't standing at her kitchen sink anymore in her mostly clean kitchen, but laying on her side somewhere. There was something wet beneath her that smelled horrible. There was very little light, just from a doorway? She couldn't even move a finger to get up or her mouth to call for help and the only thing she could here was somewhere a faucet was dripping. Then as soon as it had begun the vision was gone and she could feel Bruce's hands gently untucking her shirt from her skirt. It was wrong though. Something was wrong. Something was missing. 

"Bruce, how many days has it been since you've had an incident? Since Hulk made an appearance." 

Darcy couldn't remember. Hulk was part of her husband, but she couldn't remember the last time she saw him. She placed a hand to her forehead and fought through her cloudy thoughts. She couldn't remember Hulk meeting the children-- _Bruce had never wanted children._ He didn't want to pass on the possibility of a Hulk gene. 

She didn't understand. They had two children. Caleb and Samantha and now he wanted to try for a third.

"Who are you talking about sweetheart? Are you having another one of those strange dreams? By incident do you mean how long it's been since you've had one that you've told me about?"

Darcy hesitated turning in his arms to grip the front of his shirt. it didn't make sense. That wet dark room had felt _real_ horrible and disgusting, painful and worrying, but real. Bruce's kind brown eyes were filled up with worry as she looked up into them and he smoothed a piece of hair behind her ear. Suddenly, she couldn't remember what she'd been so worried about as she kissed him and his warm hands slid inside her shirt. She was surely imagining things and worrying about nothing. Her life was perfect, after all.

It wasn't until later that night once they'd put the children to bed, when she and Bruce were headed that way themselves that she thought to ask him.

"Bruce?"

"Hmm?" 

She waited until he pushed his glasses slightly down to look at her over them and set aside his physics journal.

"What...what are my strange dreams like?"

The worried look returned to his eyes, and she could see the wheels in his mind turning as he stalled, pulling on his sleeping pants, _That was wrong. Bruce slept naked to avoid shredding his clothes in the event of a Hulk triggering nightmare._ before he decided how to answer her.

"It's been a while since you had one. They were kind of fantastic. I wish you'd turn them into a book or something. It might help you. A green monster triggered by rage would be an interesting character, though I have to admit I found myself more interested with the voluptuous and vivacious tea shop manager."

Darcy could feel her heart rate kick up as he slid into bed next to her and she laid her head on his shoulder. Bruce wouldn't never call Hulk an _interesting character_. Not unless he was making a bad joke on himself. She had the same feeling she'd gotten that morning. Like something was wrong, missing. Not right. Had she ever worked in a tea shop? She'd been working for Coulson since she finished the internship with Jane, though. Her mind reeled and she couldn't understand what was going on. 

Then Bruce's hand smoothed over her hair, she slipped slowly into sleep and woke up.

The dimly lit dripping room was exactly as she remembered it. Darcy couldn't move, not even to blink, but her eyes, those would roll and look around wherever she was. 

It was hard trying to focus on what felt real and not slipping back into sleep. Her whole body ached like a bruise, and something twinge in her arm like she'd been poked with a needle. Once she was able to move her eyes far enough she could catch sight of an IV line trailing upward from her prone form. She continued trying to see around the room until a flash of blue caught her unfocused eyes. She tried to squint, to do anything that would let her see that little bit of color more clearly, but that was hard to do when she couldn't even blink. Her eyes misted up with tears that she was pretty sure she didn't have the body fluid to spare for, but somehow when they dropped away from her eyes, she could finally understand what she was looking at.

It was Steve's mask laying on the dirty, damp ground.


	2. Something Forgotten

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve looks for his cellphone and worries Peggy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: None of the characters are mine.
> 
> Unbeta'd.

Steve jumped as Bucky's hand came down on his shoulder. His best friend was the only guy that could still sneak up on him like that, even in a crowded bar filled with off duty soldiers. It was still weird after all this time for Bucky to be a little shorter than him. Steve had always had to look so far up to glare into his eyes before the War. 

"Come Rogers, aren't you ready to blow this joint yet? I've got two girls waiting, looking to show some returned soldiers a good time."

It was easy as pie for Steve's face to shape into it's usual exasperation for Bucky's attempts to get him to 'live a little'.

"You know I'm--"

"Waiting for Peggy to get here."

He watched Bucky sigh, but he could tell his friend was hiding a grin.

"You know, I think you're the only guy who's just as boring after the War as you were before. Only now you're wrapped around Carter's little finger and boring."

Steve knew it was what Bucky wanted, but he protested anyway.

"I'm not boring! We're going dancing."

Bucky just waved his hand.

"I know, I know, your standing Friday night date." He glance down at his watch. "Well, she'll be here soon and I don't want to watch you make puppy eyes at her any more than I have to so I'm clearing out. I've got dames waiting."

Steve grinned.

"Go on, I'll see you tomorrow. Don't be late! Colonel Phillips will skin you!'

He could see Bucky shaking his head all the way out the door.

After he was gone, Steve allowed himself to get lost in watching the crowd. His fingers itched for his sketchpad and a pencil to capture how happy the bar crowd seemed. The guys in uniform and the women in their colorful dresses, their white teeth bright against their red lips shining out through the smoke of the bar. It was something he wanted to share with everyone. That thought in mind he began fishing in his pockets for his cell phone. He'd take a picture of it and be able to show them the next day, but as he searched the more he was convinced he didn't have a cell phone on him. Why would he? They didn't exist in the 1940s, but if they didn't exist, why did he know about them? 

He was still standing there trying to gather his thoughts when the familiar sharp click of heels on the ground made him grin and turn his head. Peggy was gorgeous. Her red hair was vibrant even through the haze of the bar and he moved towards her, parting the crowd easily with his shoulders.

"Hello, Captain. You looked like you were lost for a moment, there."

"Peggy." 

Steve grinned and leaned in to kiss her cheek and place a hand on her hip. For some reason, he had been expecting her hip to feel thinner under his hand, and to not have to bend so far to kiss her. She looked just as surprised as he felt, and there was a bit of a blush staining her cheeks.

"My aren't you feeling forward tonight, Steve."

It wasn't until she said something that he realized he had indeed been a little forward, but it hadn't seemed that way to him. It had seemed normal, and perfectly reasonable to give his girl a kiss on the cheek and touch her. He found himself looking over her shoulder.

"Stark with you?"

Her look of confusion only made the odd feeling in the back of his mind grow stronger.

"No, you know Howard and Maria are on their honeymoon."

"That's right."

Steve nodded along with her and tried not to wince when she began to look at him speculatively. He hadn't been looking for Howard though. He'd been looking for _Tony._ As though conjuring Tony's name in his mind had broken some sort of damn, his world slid sideways and Steve found himself not standing with Peggy in a smoke filled bar, but propped up against a wall looking across a room that had a single dying light bulb swinging from the ceiling. There was someone else there a little ways in font of him laying on their side, hooked to an IV drip of some sort.

He tried to lean forward and sideways to get a better look at whoever it was, a woman he was pretty sure, but he found it impossible to move anything except his eyes. He couldn't even open his mouth to yell. He hadn't felt so helpless in a very long time, and then the mysterious woman on the ground was gone, replaced by Peggy's concerned eyes and a tight worried look around her mouth.

"Steve? Are you okay? We don't have to go out tonight. I can walk you home and then we can meet tomorrow for lunch, instead if you're not feeling well."

He reached forward and gripped her hand.

"No. I'm fine. Really, Peggy. It was just...just my imagination for a moment."

She leveled a steady look at him that told him she was going to find out his secrets, but Steve had been on the receiving end of a look like that more than once from.... _Who looked at him like that?_ Steve dismissed the question for later when he could think about it without Peggy reading every single emotion on his face. He offered her his arm and was again surprised by how far down he had to look at her next to him, even in her heels it seemed like she should be taller.

"Let's go, if you're ready."

"We'll still go on the condition that you agree to see the doctor sometime tomorrow. Dr. Erskine left warnings in his notes about things that might happen after you'd had the treatment for a number of years and it's better to safe than sorry."

Steve grimaced. He hated being poked and prodded at, but at least they had stopped taking blood from him a long time ago.

"I can accept that deal."

He watched Peggy's chin bob in a sharp nod and hoped he'd be able to figure out what was wrong with him _before_ the doctor's tried to.


	3. Something Discovered

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For the first time since the idealization of the Avengers Initiative Phil Coulson didn't know what to do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Characters aren't mine!
> 
> Thank you to everyone who has left kudos and comments.
> 
> Thanks once more to TheGreatSporkWielder for beta-ing this chapter.

Captain America had volunteered to retrieve Darcy Lewis from The Avengers Tower to keep the Hulk from breaking the windows out of every other floor past the twentieth when he climbed it again to see her, but somewhere in between the battle site and the tower, both of them had disappeared. The only things left were Steve's bike, and blurry security footage from two roadside cameras. Tony had attacked the footage with fervor that would be disturbing if it wasn't Steve on the line, while Pepper and JARVIS kept his world running around him despite the slightest tremble in her limbs and the circles under her eyes that make up was becoming insufficient to hide. It had taken only seven hours for Tony to clear the images up perfectly. 

The attack was disturbing. They were looking for a man with a tattooed face and hands who could shoot the blue of the Tesseract from his hands. He had gone for the bike first, out of no where that even Steve could have noticed. The attack sent Steve flying through the air, but Darcy had only fallen off the bike. Undoubtedly, she was injured, from the way she hadn't even moved despite having worn a helmet. Phil couldn't stand to look at Bruce's pale face for more than a moment after that. Steve and the man fought, the shield deflecting the blue balls of light with no issues until the man turned into smoke and _teleported_ behind Steve, delivering a crushing blow to the back of his head. The man picked Darcy up and carried her until they were close to where Steve had fallen. Then he bent to lay a hand to Steve's shoulder and they all disappeared. 

Before anyone else could react, Coulson sent a message for SHIELD agents to block off the area and begin searching for things out of the ordinary. Tony went to suit up, insisting that JARVIS might be able to scan something the SHIELD team couldn't. Pepper left the room, and Phil ignored the way her legs were trembling. Natasha and Clint rose simultaneously from their chairs and he had an uncensored rush of affection for the way Natasha had been reduced to a slight accent when she told the room they would ask around to find out what they could. Bruce wandered off with a comment to send anything they found to his lab, but otherwise they probably shouldn't disturb him for fear of an incident. Only Thor and Jane were left, looking horribly lost and purposeless. Phil had to fix that.

"Agents Romanov and Barton will be fine, but the others, someone's going to need to force them to sleep and eat until we can see Miss Lewis and Captain Rogers home safely."

Jane blinked and her brow furrowed as though she hadn't really understood him, but Thor's hand fell gently on her shoulder and he nodded.

"Thank you, Son of Coul for direction. We will be sure that our comrades have the best care in their time of suffering."

Coulson nodded and made for the car waiting for him at the base of the tower. Tony was probably already on site ordering his agents around.

Three days passed with nothing they could follow.

It was the first time since the idealization of the Avengers Initiative that Phil Coulson didn't know what to do. When Clint was forced to attack the helicarrier he knew to go to the armory and defend their flying fortress in whatever capacity he could. When he woke up from the results of that encounter with Loki, he knew to listen to his doctors, heal, and get back to work as soon as he could. In all of the villains the Avengers had handled, Coulson had been standing by, fending off suits over property damages and protecting them from the things they shouldn't have to worry about while they did the heavy lifting and took the beatings that normal citizens couldn't. In this situation, though, there was nothing he could do except make hot beverages and stand by, being silently reassuring, until someone could find _something_.

Bruce had locked himself up in SHIELD's containment unit for everyone else's safety and he wasn't eating much. Natasha and Clint hadn't checked in with Phil in five hours. He told himself it wasn't time to worry about them yet. Not when Pepper Potts was just returning from delivering tranquilized food to Tony's workshop and forcing him to eat part of it, even though make up wasn't enough to hide the bruises forming under her own eyes. Jane and Thor were flipping omelets. The thought of putting something in his stomach made Phil sick, but when Pepper made a special request and managed to eat part of it when she was looking sicker than he felt, he soldiered up and ate some himself. 

There were five more hours of waiting with only one brief check in from Clint that had set Phil on further edge than if he hadn't heard from them at all. Just as Tony was stomping down the stairs from his workshop with fury in his face at being drugged, Natasha and Clint burst in the doorway. To the untrained eye, she looked as put together as she always did, but Phil could see the way her curls were ever so slightly out of placed and the way she was almost, but not quite, favoring her left leg. Clint's imperceptible head shake told him not to ask until later.

"I think I have something." 

Coulson ushered Pepper forward to the meeting table, noting the way Tony's face blanked over and the way Pepper winced, plainly knowing she wouldn't be off the hook yet. 

"Hospital's have reported IV bags gone missing, and our tattooed man is the criminal. He pops in, takes what he wants, never more than a couple of bags of fluids at a time, and then he pops out again. He hasn't hit the same hospital twice yet, but he's running out of options. There are only a few left in or near the city. Judging by the amount of fluids he's been taking and the intervals between his trips to steal them, he should be making another run tonight or tomorrow night."

Phil's first instinct was that she was leaving something out. He was surprised when someone spoke up from the doorway echoing his sentiment.

"So what are you not telling us?" 

It was Bruce; half in the shadow of the doorway. His eyes were almost phosphorescently green, and Phil could feel the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. Natasha actually swallowed before she continued.

"Paralytics. Besides IVs he's been stealing paralytics and the amount he was taking went up exponentially three days ago."

Pepper's freckles stood out like someone had thrown paint on her face; she was so pale. 

"Steve's metabolism. He has to be given more of them."

Natasha nodded warily.

"That was my conclusion as well."

Tony startled the whole room with a clap of his hands.

"Well? What are we waiting for? Time to stake out some hospitals!"


	4. Something Damaged

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Darcy had to be sure.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own anyone except for Caleb and Samantha.
> 
> Thanks again to TheGreatSporkWielder for beta-ing.
> 
> WARNINGS: This chapter does contain a single incident of spousal violence. It's not repeated, and there is a good plot reason for it, but if that's triggery for you please don't read. (It's not Bruce hurting Darcy, so no worries there.)

Darcy went through the next day in a haze. Apparently, she was on staff working to get New York Governor Nick Fury elected President of the United States of America. That was the only thing managing to keep Darcy from thinking she was crazy, and that seeing Steve's mask lying in a puddle on the ground was just a nightmare. Her morning had been absolutely perfect. Bruce had kissed her awake, despite their combined morning breath that he normally complained tasted like roadkill, and that was if he was in bed when she woke up at all. She was used to him leaving because of his own nightmares, or odd three in the morning science inspiration. Then he went and got Caleb and Samantha up and the four of them had another cheery family breakfast before the kids dashed off for the bus. It was pizza day at school, and that seemed to mean Darcy didn't have to pack their lunches.

Work had been okay except for everything seeming _off_. First of all, who would ever want to elect Nick Fury as the President? Second, Natasha Romanov did not gossip around a water cooler. Third, Clint Barton _never missed_ no matter how much Darcy wished he would, but there they both were. Natasha's red curls bouncing as she leaned towards Maria Hill to gossip, and Clint missed the garbage can with a paper ball. 

Coulson sent her home when someone called her Mrs. Banner and her mind slipped away, back to that dim room staring across the floor at the out of place, bright blue of Captain America's mask. Its flat collapsed material seemed to plead with her to stay, to not retreat once more into that weirdly ideal world. Darcy _knew_ Bruce had never married her. They hadn't even talked about it. The way they were had always been fine, or at least fine enough for Darcy not to want to upset him by asking about it. 

She had like to hear it though, _Mrs. Banner_. Bruce, Darcy, Caleb, and Samantha Banner, Darcy's little imaginary family. It terrified her how much she was beginning to wish it wasn't imaginary. She wanted to share a home permanently with Bruce, rather than have them fall into who ever's bed was on the closest floor of the tower. The problem was she could see both situations clearly in her mind. She couldn't be sure, couldn't distinguish which one was real and which one was imaginary. She was pretty sure her kids weren't real, but at the same time her heart clenched in her chest every time she even dared to think that. What kind of mother was she to not even believe the existence of her children?

She had to be sure.

So, the first thing she did when she got home was go to the shelf in the living room and pick out a photo album and open it up. The first thing in the albums wasn't a photo like she was expecting, but two sonograms labeled in bright colors and all caps with her children's names. Her heart crawled up into her throat and stayed there as she continued turning pages. There was Bruce pressing a kiss to her huge stomach, and Tony holding a ruler up to it. Bruce leaning next to her hospital bed with Caleb in his arms. Then again little two year old Caleb sitting on her hospital bed and Bruce beaming as his larger hands helped his son hold newborn Samantha while he sat with her. The pictures were familiar and bright. They pulled out the warmest of feelings in her chest.

But she couldn't actually remember any of it happening. 

She pulled out the other albums and flipped through them trying _so_ hard to remember. To be sure what she knew was real. She loved her children. Her beautiful boy and girl were her life, but she wasn't sure that this life _was_ her life. Then there was Bruce. In almost every picture he was smiling. He grinned from ear to ear, easy as he pleased. There seemed to be fewer lines on his face, not so much grey in his hair, and the ever present fear in his eyes simply wasn't there. She couldn't see it anywhere.

Feeling out of balance and like she was losing her mind Darcy went to her laptop, pulled up Google, and typed in "The Hulk". The first response was an inquiry asking if she had meant _The Hull_ in reference to some boating and fishing forum. 

Darcy didn't know what to do. She ended up staring at the screen until the front door opened and she heard Bruce call her name. She slapped the lid of her lap top closed and hollered back at him.

"In here, Bruce!"

It was only a moment before his slightly bushy haired head appeared around the corner.

"Dear? Natasha called me, said you weren't--are you crying?"

Quickly Darcy wiped at her face. She hadn't realized she was leaking tears over the big green guy. 

"No. No, I'm fine I was just looking at the baby albums a little bit ago. Tony's in there and so is Pepper, but where's Steve? There aren't any pictures of him with us or the kids."

She watched Bruce frown and move closer to her kneeling in front of her chair and looking up into her face.

"Steve who? Darcy, what are you talking about?"

Her eyes tracked his face. She was right from looking at the photos. He wasn't afraid; the lines on his face were laugh lines, not stress lines.

"Steve Rogers, you know super soldier, good man, Captain America?"

He frowned and brushed her hair back from her face.

"Your stories are great for the kids, dear, but..."

Darcy felt a sharp stab of annoyance.

"They aren't stories."

Finally, his forehead began to wrinkle in that way it always did when he was getting annoyed and fighting for control. He stood up, took a step away and Darcy felt a spark of hope light in her chest.

"Come on, you really mean to tell me you're expecting me to turn into some green rage monster that's secretly a misunderstood teddy bear when I get angry? It's great for the kids to know I'd never hurt them if I got angry and I know you came up with it because of how worried I was about being a father because of the way _my_ father was, but enough is enough, Darcy. It's not a children's story anymore."

Darcy didn't really process what he was saying. It was unimportant next to watching his physical cues. Bruce's eyes didn't change color, or even crackle with restrained green fury. He didn't take himself out of the room. His arms didn't even tremble. Her heart sunk. There had to be _something_ , something that never failed to make Bruce mad. 

Pain. 

Pain and injury never failed to bring Hulk out. She just had to scrape up the ability to hurt him. If she was home, if Bruce had that kicked dog air about him that never failed to make her want to wrap her arms around him and pull him close, she would never have been able to do it, but this Bruce, this man, wasn't the one she had fallen in love with. So, Darcy picked up the laptop and swung it at his face. 

The crack that the connection of the hard plastic to his face made sickened her, but when she dropped her arms, calmly setting the laptop back on the table she could only see shock on Bruce's face and the blood streaming from his nose. Distantly, she realized it was probably broken, but he wasn't getting larger, wasn't turning green. She expected to loose that world, to go sideways with her realization and see the blue mask once more. Instead, she heard a small voice from the doorway Bruce had entered in.

"M-Momma?"

Darcy turned to see Samantha's big blue eyes fixed on them in abject horror. Her daughter had just seen her break her father's nose with a laptop, but the only thing Darcy could think was: _She's not my child._. 

It wasn't until Bruce's face went from shock to horror, matching his daughter's, that Darcy realized she'd said that out loud.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to go cry in a corner if anyone should like to join me. This chapter broke my heart.
> 
> NOTICE: A Bruce/Darcy and Hulk/Darcy chatroom is being established! It's through AIM and called ElectricGreen Please come and join us!


	5. Something Learned

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve remembers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters.
> 
> Thanks again to my beta TheGreatSporkWielder!
> 
> Thanks to everyone leaving comments and kudos!
> 
> If you should like to chat join us in the ElectricGreen chatroom on AIM!

It took Steve almost two songs before he could fall into step and lead like he was supposed to with Peggy. The tight worried look around her mouth had replaced her small secret smile again. Steve couldn't figure out what the problem had been; he had been trying to dance with her the way he had been taught. He'd been told steps didn't matter too much anymore unless you wanted them to. It was enough to hold your partner close and dance with her. Peggy kept her distance, though, and looked at him oddly whenever he tried to pull her closer, so he gave up on it and slowly but surely picked up her lead and took over. His heart twinged at the relieved look she obviously hadn't meant for him to see.

It was only midnight when she grinned quickly at him, _wrong, it should be slow and lingering_. They moved to take a break on the edge of the floor.

"Well, that should about do it until next week, I think."

It took Steve a few moments to realize she was saying they should call it a night. 

"But it's only midnight."

Peggy's eyebrow arched and he almost winced. Midnight was quite late enough for a decent unmarried couple to be out. He'd been spending too much time with Tony if he thought midnight was early.

"And we've both got to go into the office early in the morning. You to see the doctors and me to work."

Distantly, Steve felt himself nod. She smiled again, and when she started forward to pass him and head for the doors, he caught a whiff of her perfume. It was lovely, but somehow still not what he had been expecting. Peggy smelled like the rose oil his mother had used when he was very young, before they couldn't afford it any more, and just an underlying touch of gunpowder. Steve was expecting something different; something like cherry blossoms and the permanent linger of ink. 

He reached out and grasped Peggy's hand, making her pause. Her hand was smaller in his than it should have been, but stronger, with calluses he wasn't used to. Her fingers were too short. Not like the thin, long, bones of Pepper's hand. _Pepper._ How could he have forgotten Pepper? Pepper and Tony were his best friends, his lovers, everything to him. What could possibly make him forget about them?

He felt himself stagger, then the crowded dance club disappeared, and he could see the collapsed form of the woman in the puddle in front of him. He could feel a hard wall against his back, but he still couldn't budge even an eyelid. There was movement to his left, a bright blue glow in his peripheral vision and he was back in the club.

"Steve!"

Peggy was holding him up. Her much smaller shoulder was under his arm and a stranger had his other side. Quickly, he pulled himself together and straightened up. Something was going on. He might have forgotten his relationship with Pepper and Tony for a short while, but he had remembered them now, all of them. From the glow of Tony's arc reactor against Pepper's sleep softened form, to the slow and gentle way they had welcomed him into their world and helped him make it his own. 

He smiled at Peggy reassuringly. She was beautiful; exactly how he remembered her, from the style of her hair to the click of her heels as she walked, but Steve knew now she wasn't real. The woman he had loved died a long time ago and he had moved on. It was difficult, but not impossible for him to turn on his heel and walk away. He could hear her following, heard the click of her heels, and her yelling his name. He hit the doors of the club and started running. He turned down and alley and caught the bottom of a fire escape, scaling it quickly until he was sure she had passed.

He had to figure out what was going on and how he could get back to the people he loved. 

"Steve Rogers." 

The voice was barely a whisper from behind him on the roof. Steve whirled and settled his feet into a defensive stance, prepared for a fight. Instead of seeing the rest of the roof, when he turned he was looking into electric blue eyes, and unable to move once more. He could feel a hand clenching his face, felt long curved nails digging into his skin. Cross-eyed, Steve could see dark tattoo patterns covering the skin surrounding those eyes.

"Such a difficult meal. I regret taking you. True, your body is rich and will last far longer than a normal human's, but your soul and your dreams are not any more delicious than another body's would have been, and yet I have to steal twice as much and pump drugs into you only to have you wake up! At least Darcy Lewis is normal enough to succumb to the fantasy and be trapped in it despite recognizing its falsehood. It's easy to distract her with the life she might have had if her lover was not a monster."

Steve could feel his heart seize in his chest. _Darcy_ was the woman strewn in the puddle on the ground and still, like nothing so much as a corpse. He would never have believed it if he hadn't been told. He still wasn't sure the woman could be Darcy. She seemed much smaller than she had before. The younger woman was his friend, one of his best friends outside of Tony and Pepper, and she was trapped like he had been inside a reality that didn't actually exist. What was she seeing and believing? What was she living while her body suffered?

"It is pointless for me to waste the energy to return you to the dream now. You can watch your friend's body go to waste and wait for your own death. You were a bad selection, Steve Rogers."

The tight grip on his face disappeared and he watched the tattooed man move to Darcy's side. He bent over her with closed eyes and breathed in. Steve knew he wasn't imagining the odd wisps that came from her and disappeared into the man's nose and mouth. Steve strained against his own body trying to move, to do anything to save his friend. With a sick grin, the man rose and gripped Darcy’s hair, dragging her body to the left, bringing her around and into Steve's line of sight. 

If his body had been able to, Steve would have wept at the hollow look of her cheeks underneath the grime and the way her clothes hung on her wasting form.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Couple of things I probably should have mentioned in earlier chapters: 1) While I'm basing this on a SPN episode I am by no means trying to make it accurate to the creature or the happenings of that episode.
> 
> 2) This piece can be seen as future occurrence/spin off type thing in my Sleeping with the Team Captains series, but because it has a completely different tone and darker subject matter I'm not including it in the actual series.
> 
> If you should like to chat join us in the ElectricGreen chatroom on AIM!


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